Deepest fish ever filmed — over 5 miles down — found near Japan. See it up close

A team of scientists exploring deep sea trenches off the coast of Japan set two new records: the deepest fish ever filmed and the deepest fish ever caught.

The scientists were led by Alan Jamieson, founder of a deep sea research center and professor at The University of Western Australia, the university said in an April 3 news release. The two-month expedition began in September and explored several deep sea trenches off the coast of Japan.

To explore the depth, researchers used a camera on a weighted frame, BBC reported.

Bait would be added to an extended metal arm of the camera system to attract fish, according to the university release.

Dropping the camera into the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, the researchers filmed an “extremely small” snailfish of an “unknown” species swimming along, experts said. The fish was 27,349 feet, or just over 5.1 miles, below the surface.

The tiny fish swam into the left side of the camera’s view, the record-breaking video shared by The University of Western Australia shows. The fish has a fluttering tail and appears a blue-purple color.

Previously, the “deepest fish observation” came from 26,830 feet, or 5.08 miles, deep in the Mariana Trench, located east of the Philippines, BBC reported.

The researchers broke another record a few days later when they caught two snailfish in traps set 26,319 feet, or 4.98 miles, below the surface, the release said. Both fish were identified as Pseudoliparis belyaevi.

Snailfish are a diverse group of fish with long, gelatinous bodies that allow them to survive in the ocean’s depths, according to Britannica.

“We have spent over 15 years researching these deep snailfish,” Jamieson said in the release. “There is so much more to them than simply the depth, but the maximum depth they can survive is truly astonishing.”

At about 5 miles below the surface, snailfish experience water pressure “800 times the pressure at the ocean surface,” BBC reported.

“The Japanese trenches were incredible places to explore,” Jamieson said in the release. “They are so rich in life, even all the way at the bottom.”

“In other trenches such as the Mariana Trench,” he said, “we were finding (snailfish) at increasingly deeper depths just creeping over that 8,000m (about 4.9 miles) mark in fewer and fewer numbers, but around Japan they are really quite abundant.”

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